Tag Archives: mercer middle school

Seattle Police report that at about 1:30 Sunday morning, someone broke into a portable classroom and set it on fire at Asa Mercer Middle School. Police say that the suspect or suspects probably stole a number of computers from the portable, which is the media arts and yearbook classroom. Detectives are investigating the incident, which caused about $15,000 in damage.

Photo by Wendi Dunlap.Safe Kids Seattle, the Seattle Department of Transportation, Feet First and FedEx are starting a year-long partnership with Beacon Hill’s Asa Mercer Middle School, with a goal of improving safety and conditions for pedestrians in the area around the school. The kickoff event for this program is tonight (June 6) at 6 p.m., during the Sixth Grade Parent Welcome Night at Asa Mercer Middle School, 1600 S. Columbian Way.

As part of the project, FedEx is presenting the Safe Kids task force with a grant of $25,000 for work throughout the upcoming year to improve permanent walking conditions for child pedestrians in the Asa Mercer community. The task force will create both environmental changes in the area, and educational campaigns to increase pedestrian awareness.

Asa Mercer Middle School was one of five schools recognized for overall excellence at the K-8, 6-8, or 9-12 levels. Mercer was also recognized for outstanding achievement in mathematics and outstanding achievement in science.

Beacon Hill’s Asa Mercer Middle School is one of five public schools in Seattle that has been recognized as a “School of Distinction” for outstanding academic achievement in improving math and reading. Schools with this honor have placed in the top 5 percent of highest-improving schools in Washington.

The other schools in Seattle to earn this honor are Alki Elementary School, Hamilton International Middle School, Madison Middle School, and Orca K-8 School.

Mercer has received this honor for the last three years in a row. Congratulations to everyone at Mercer!

Walkway at Mercer Middle School. Photo by Wendi.Beacon Hill’s Asa Mercer Middle School is one of thirteen Seattle Public Schools to be honored for winning a Washington Achievement Award. Mercer’s award is in the category of Overall Excellence; the school was also recognized last year.

Schools are selected for the award based on their statewide assessment data for the three previous years, and awards are given for overall excellence as well as for special recognition in language arts, math, science, graduation rate, improvement, and closing achievement gaps.

The award ceremony will take place at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, April 27, at Lincoln High School, 701 S. 37th St, Tacoma.

Volunteers busy painting a mural. Photo courtesy of Clearwire.Last week over 100 Clearwire employees participated in a volunteer project at Asa Mercer Middle School. They painted a mural and some walls of the portable classrooms, built benches and planters, planted flowers, and put together new backpacks with donated school supplies—one for each of Mercer’s 850 students. Clearwire also donated 34 Lenovo laptop computers for Mercer’s new mobile computer lab.

The project was part of Clearwire’s service program, “Connecting with Communities.” Thanks to Clearwire for volunteering on Beacon Hill and helping the kids in our community!

As a result of high expectations and standards, student behavior has improved. Instead of suspensions, the school now tries to keep kids with behavior problems in class, monitors them and offers old-fashioned nurturing, guidance, and what we might just call “hand-holding.” In the month of September, Mercer had no suspensions or expulsions. None. Zero. That fact alone is cause for celebration. Couple it with the surge in academic performance, the spirit of expectation and hope in the hallways and classrooms, and Mercer Middle School is a shining star on Beacon Hill.